evelopment of personality and fixations during infancy: Freudian Perspective
According to the ‘psychosexual theory’ given by Sigmund Freud, the first stage in personality development is oral stage. The needs and interests of a new born human being centre on this particular part of the body, his desires being satisfied largely in the area of the mouth, esophagus and stomach. The infant needs fondling and affection in much the same rhythm that he is fed. Being wanted, being loved and played with are an important part of the diet, so to speak. Child is born with a set of traits and when these interact with the environment outside, it determines the formation of personality. Some infants are more sensitive to stimuli, some children by their earliest life reaction have a great will to live and get .On the contrary, some children give up easily without a fight.
Experiences of infants:
Birth: Birth is definitely a trauma to the young organism and comes as a shock and requires some quick physiological readjustments. Some researchers lay much importance to the experience of birth in the later age anxiety problems.
Hunger-Affection tension: The satisfaction of the demands of the new born child through nursing is extremely important to the child, because this act is practically his only source of satisfaction. He has only rhythms set up by his physiological apparatus. He enjoys the act of sucking, which incidentally helps the rhythms of breathing and digestion. He has a “hunger” for the security of touch with her mother. So in short, the infant has largely one satisfaction: being fed and supplemental to it, being in contact with his mother and having her affection.
Whatever attitude is shown by the mother or caregiver in the feeding process (environment) is the attitude the child is likely to associate with food, feeding and the nursing process. And along with it, psychologically he also gathers much about life in general. The combination of the mental attitude and the feeding process or the psychological process of eating contains many implications. Friendship, goodwill, affection and the eating process are connected in many ways.
Feeding and Security: Children, who are denied of food or are much unattended, react by eating too much, or by having a pressing and clinging attitude to those around them, demanding attention and reassurance all the time.
Children with too much emphasis on food are made to believe that food is the most important thing in life. Not only does food become too important, but the child is given the feeling that he need not worry, and will always be taken care of. He is always reassured by caretakers that good things in life always come his way without any effort.
Anxieties in infancy:
The child just may have to suffer hunger, loneliness or discomfort of lying too long in one place. The necessity of enduring this tension too long by him creates an effect which multiplies with the passage of time, result eventually in an apathy or emotional coldness. The baffling lack of emotional response in depression and schizophrenia is undoubtedly due to this cause.
The anxiety derived of instinctual tension within a human being which has not been mastered in an appropriate way in an appropriate time, is sometimes dealt with some defenses erected by the subconscious mind in child. Some kind of defenses is phobias, in which a child is fearful of some object or situation.
Sucking is the very first mode of gratification in a human being which continues to satisfy him all through his life .He urges to seek gratification by oral means – to allay tension-is seen in later life in alcoholism, in the enjoyment of food, in drinking, in smoking or in chewing gums. These things are tension reducers. Such a person seems to be clinging and attach themselves very deeply. In attaching themselves they behave as though they have served their lives by trying to make up to themselves what they lacked in infancy. While it may be hard on those around them, many neurotic people utilize their behaviour as a life saving mechanism, not being too sensitive themselves, and get along in society fairly well by frequent changes in friendships.
Having introduced the subject of anxiety in infants, however, and having indicated it’s importance and some of it’s ill effects of it’s presence, it is concluded that infant must be free from stress and should have affection, love , interest , attention, and fondling by a close contact of devoted parent. The more affection and understanding of his early instinctual needs are given the easier his later socialization will progress.
0 komentar
Post a Comment